4 ms·
Mystery 1) Who is the unregistered flyer? Mystery 2) This jetpack is outperforming known jetpacks. How?
by musingsole 6y ago
Mystery 1) Who is the unregistered flyer?
Mystery 2) This jetpack is outperforming known jetpacks. How?
- ivanb 6y agoThere was a science fiction short story where a group of scientists was invited by military personnel to watch a short secret footage of someone flying a jetpack. The scientists were told that the inventor only had one prototype and he crashed it killing himself and destroying the unique device. Next several months the scientists spent brainstorming and trying to figure out how he did it. Spoiler! The footage turned out to be fabricated by military. The scientists still built a prototype of the jetpack. Not so fast, light and agile but they made something that was previously considered impossible.
- FpUser 6y agoI did read that short story a long time ago. That was not jetpack but rather based on anti gravity.
- bessarabov 6y agoI was sure that I've also read that story. But I don't remember nor the author, nor title. Started searching and found a thread on stackexchange. It looks like thaere are several stories with such a plot: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/74090/scientists-shown-a-fake-anti-gravity-device-to-motivate-them-to-build-the-real-t https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/74090/scientists-s...
- vulcan01 6y agoDoes anyone know the title of this short story?
- beamatronic 6y agoThat’s the gag. You now have to write it yourself.
- Muromec 6y agoI remember it under the name “white noise“
- vulcan01 6y agoFor future reference: this is Noise Level by Raymond F. Jones.
- jstarfish 6y agoMy boss plays these games. "I just got back from a super-secret conference where someone you don't know--and can't ask questions of--gave me a private demonstration of how they're doing ___ using nothing but Coca-Cola and Mentos. Your request for funding for ___ is denied, but I'll meet you halfway-- here's a pack of Mentos."
- musingsole 6y agoI have an anecdote from a mobile device manufacturer: a new sensor module was able to provide all sorts of biometric data to a smartphone and just snapped onto the phone, no other configuration. The device was shown to a team of top engineers and they were given a couple weeks to develop an equivalent system. The sensing was easy and worked fine, but at the end of the project they could never replicate the seamless pairing of the device to the phone. Left with all sorts of theories about hacked network stacks...they admitted defeat. Only to then learn: the device was transmitting data with inaudible soundwaves picked up by the phone's microphone. What you're hinting at can cut both ways: you can fake the magical, while often the magical is far simpler than you thought.
- jiofih 6y agoSource? Sounds like bullshit or terrible engineering. Transmitting data via audio would come up in a 10m brainstorm about possible communication channels.
- pseudolus 6y agoReminds me a bit of the movie "The Rocketeer" which featured a jetpack of unknown origin [0]. Great movie. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi0Et31E7s4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi0Et31E7s4 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocketeer_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocketeer_(film)
- tsjq 6y agoMust be some " boring company " product promo